


Honeyed Afternoon

by LeaperSonata



Category: Ever After High
Genre: Gen, Misses Clause Challenge, Shapeshifters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2014-12-16
Packaged: 2018-03-01 19:37:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2785259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeaperSonata/pseuds/LeaperSonata
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>hon·eyed<br/>adjective<br/>1.<br/>containing or coated with honey.<br/>having a rich sweetness of taste or smell.<br/>2.<br/>soothing, soft, and intended to please or flatter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Honeyed Afternoon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Laurea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurea/gifts).



> Prompt: "I love this series in all its sparkly ridiculous glory, and I'd love to see a story that really highlights the silly parts of the concept. Maybe something about the different versions a fairy tale can have and how that affects the students?"
> 
> I hope I managed to come up with something you like! I was delighted to get assigned to an EAH request as I love it very dearly and have, um, six of the dolls and a playset/giant plastic display Book Of Legends.
> 
> (Raven and Maddie are totally together in this story. It's just not out and out explicitly stated or focused on so I didn't want to tag it with the relationship and disappoint people looking for something centering on them. Like, uh, myself later.)
> 
> Note: This story was written before Thronecoming came out and is not canon-compliant with Thronecoming :(
> 
> Invaluable brainstorming help was provided by mesonyx. The resulting fic was betad by mourn, to my eternal gratitude. This is a much better fic than it would have been without either of them.

"You're coming to the picnic, right?"

Raven blinks at Maddie. "There's a picnic?"

Maddie nods seriously. "It's the Day of Spades! It's an important Wonderland holiday. Everyone's invited!" she adds, turning to include the nearby clusters of Royals and Rebels in her invitation. "It's very important that as many people as possible come!" Most of them ignore her, but Raven shoots a glare at Apple and she turns on her perfect queen-to-her-subjects smile.

"Of course we'll all come! Traditional culture is very important to maintain, isn't it?" Apple says, looking around at the other Royals. "I'm sure every Royal understands that." A couple of them shift uncomfortably, but mostly they put on smiles and assure Maddie that of course they'll be there. Ashlynn is the only one whose smile seems genuine.

Raven raises an expressive eyebrow at the knot of Rebels and they guiltily add to the acceptances. Satisfied that the rest of the school isn't going to ruin something important to Maddie, Raven transfers her attention back to Maddie's periodically incomprehensible chatter about the rituals of the Day of Spades.

 

Classes are over for the day, and everyone is spilling across the lawns, talking, and drifting towards the edge of the meadow where Maddie has improbably managed to produce an elaborate setup of blankets and picnic baskets and tables full of tea sets. Raven sometimes thinks that Maddie can do anything - maybe even more than Raven's magic can do. It doesn't even take her effort to defy the laws of physics - they don't seem to exist in the first place, when it comes to her. Raven wonders how much effort it takes Maddie to operate on the same level as the rest of the school at all. Wonderland is so different from everyone else's stories.

Lost in these thoughts, Raven makes her way across the lawn to drop onto a cushion next to Maddie and accept a cup of tea. It's cut in half and nothing seems to be holding the tea inside, but for Maddie's tea parties that's relatively normal, so she doesn't comment and takes a sip instead, discovering that it's peppermint.

Maddie is beaming. Oblivious as she seems sometimes, she's more than capable of noticing whether there are other people around or not, and her picnic is clearly a resounding success. "Everyone's come out for the Day of Spades! That's good. It's very important. If the Day of Spades isn't celebrated, all the cards fall."

Raven isn't sure what that actually means, but it doesn't sound _good_ , so she operates on that assumption and nods seriously. "I'm glad everyone's come out to the picnic, then." She leans against Maddie with a contented sigh and watches the rest of the students. They've mostly all made it to the picnic now, and are congregating in clumps and cliques among the cushions and tables. Apple, Briar, Blondie, and Lizzie are sitting underneath a huge spreading tree, and Lizzie appears to be ordering the other girls on how to take tea properly, with slashing hand gestures that take the top off of a pile of crumpets.

Maddie is engaged in a conversation in Riddlish with a dormouse, and Raven is content to let the sound of Maddie's voice wash over her without trying to understand it. She wishes she could speak Riddlish. There aren't any books about it in the library, just empty dusty spots where it looks like books might have used to be, which she suspects has something to do with Giles Grimm and babbling curse that prevents anyone but Maddie from understanding him. (Though she does wonder sometimes about Kitty. It would be like her to pretend that she doesn't understand what's going on while taking mental notes to use to her advantage later.) Asking Maddie to teach her didn't help, because Maddie doesn't understand why everyone can't speak Riddlish as well as she does. Raven thinks sometimes that Riddlish might actually be Maddie's first language, and everything else is an afterthought. Just another part of how she doesn't live in the same world as everyone else.

Everyone's settled in, talking and eating and drinking. A group of boys is standing off to one side, watching Daring demonstrate aiming the flashes of his smile to knock the bees bumbling through the flowers of the meadow out of the air. Raven rolls her eyes. He's such a show-off.

After a few perfectly timed shots that cluster of Princes applaud (and a few nearby Princesses watch out of the corners of their eyes, giggling with each other), Daring turns to aim at another bee and his foot lands in a depression in the meadow. He loses his balance, and the burning flash from his smile goes wide, flying up into the tree above Apple and her friends and impacting it solidly.

Apple shrieks a bit when it hits the trees, and turns to scold Daring for his carelessness. Faster than anyone could react, the unseen beehive up in the branches is dislodged from its mooring, the top blackened and half-melted by Daring's smile, and falls as if in slow motion down towards the now-terrified Apple.

As everyone stares, the hive impacts her head and bursts, covering her in honey. The Rebels at the very least would have laughed at that alone, since Royals don't end up in compromising situations of any kind very often - and definitely not Royals as high in the pecking order as future Queen Apple White.

Apple looks horrified, raising a hand to touch the honey, but her hand looks strange. There's a sort of ripple in the air around her, and suddenly Apple isn't sitting under the tree anymore, and in her place is a rather large bear.

Most of the students start screaming and running in various directions, led by Briar, Blondie, and Lizzie. Daring spends a few seconds looking horrified about his blunder, but someone else grabs his hand and yanks him along with into the crush.

The bear makes a hoarse awful noise like it's trying to scream but bear vocal cords aren't suited to it. Apparently as terrified by the situation as everyone else, it turns and bolts for the castle as well, heading for the dorm entrance.

Raven follows after at a more sedate pace and finds the shaking bear in Apple's bed, still sticky with honey that has bits of remnants of the hive stuck in it.

"Apple." Raven figures she might as well operate on the assumption that the bear is Apple. Shape-changing seems more likely than a random teleport switch triggered by a beehive. "Apple. You're getting your bed all sticky."

The bear snuffles hoarsely and looks up at Raven.

"There's no point in being sticky and miserable both. Come on, I'll help you get the honey off in the bath."

The bear sighs and looked at her begrimed pillow.

"I can magic it clean. Probably. You'll feel better if you're not covered in goo."

The bear moans and drops back onto the pillow.

Raven shrugs. "Fine by me. If you don't want help, you can carry on as you are." She makes a show of walking over to her side of the room, grabbing a textbook off of her desk on the way, and dropping into bed to study.

The bear continues to make snuffling miserable noises that Raven chalks up to something that can't cry trying to weep dramatically. Eventually there are rustling noises of bedclothes moving, and a louder noise that goes up at the end, like a question. Raven looks up to see the bear standing in front of the bathroom door and staring mournfully between it and her thumbless paws.

Raven hides a smile and abandons the book, getting up to go open the door and let Apple into the bathroom. The bear makes a beeline for the tub, throwing a beseeching look back at Raven, who follows and turns on the taps to start water running in. The bear lurches and drags herself awkwardly into the large sunken tub, falling into the gathering water at the bottom with a loud splash. Raven winces; that didn't look comfortable. She casts around the bathroom for a moment until she finds a long-handled brush intended for scrubbing one's back and pours some soap on it. Returning to the side of the bathtub, she kneels down and beckons to Apple.

"Come where I can reach you and I'll scrub."

The bear makes a grumpy little groan and drags herself over to within arm's reach.

"Stick your head under the water so I have something to lather the soap with." The bear glares at Raven and Raven glares back. "If you don't want help getting the honey off, I can leave."

The bear huffs a sigh and sticks her head under the tap.

 

"You should probably stay in the bathroom and drip dry for a bit. I'll go get some extra towels. The fur seems to hold a lot of water."

The bear slumps dejectedly against the side of the tub and whuffs out a sigh.

Raven shakes her head and heads for the linen closet in the hallway. On her way, she detours to Cerise's room and knocks on the door.

"Yes?"

"Cerise? It's Raven."

Cerise opens the door and looks through the crack somewhat suspiciously. "What?"

Raven makes a face. "I'm sorry to put this on you, but do you think you could help me with Apple? She seems on track to just sulk about being a bear for the rest of her life, and I thought you might be able to convince her that it isn't the end of the world. Or help her change back. Or both." She sighs. "This absolutely isn't your problem, but she's managing to be even more annoying than usual as a roommate like this. Help me?"

Cerise rolls her eyes and absently tugs her hood up more firmly around her face. "Okay."

Raven's face lights up. "Thank you. I just need to stop at the linen cupboard on the way back and grab some towels to dry her off after I helped wash the honey off."

Cerise nods and follows Raven back through the hallways to Raven and Apple's room. When they get inside, Raven pauses. "Um. Stay out here, I guess? I'll get her dried off and get her to come back out here. Thank you." She heads into the bathroom with her armload of towels.

"Apple? I brought towels."

The bear looks up from where she's standing in the middle of the floor and whuffs an assenting sort of noise. She's standing over a large puddle.

"Come here. No point in me just dropping the towels straight into that puddle."

The bear pads over and Raven drops all of the pile of towels except one, which she sets to rubbing down her fur with. When it gets soaked through, she tosses it towards the puddle and grabs another, working through until she runs out of towels and Apple looks a little less bedraggled.

"That's the best I can do, I'm afraid. I could try and dry you off more with magic, but I'm not completely sure it would work."

The bear looks morose, but pads towards the door into the room. When her head and shoulders make it through, she stops short with a hoarse noise of alarm.

"I invited Cerise here, Apple, it's fine. Let me through the door."

Cerise looks up from her seat on Raven's bed, where she was idly perusing Raven's abandoned Home Evilnomics textbook. Apple grudgingly moves the rest of the way into the bedroom and stares accusingly at her still-begrimed bed. Raven follows through the doorway once it's cleared and rolls her eyes at Apple's scrutiny. "I was busy getting it off of _you_ , I hadn't gotten to it yet." She gestures at the bed, and a jet of purple light shoots out and obscures the bed for a moment in purple smoke. When it clears, the bed is perfectly made up again with no trace of honey. Raven looks smug. "I told you I could do it."

The bear drags herself up onto the bed again and arranges herself to stare morosely across the room at Raven and Cerise.

Cerise takes down her hood to reveal her wolf's ears, earning a surprised snort and greater attention from the bear, and looks into Apple's eyes. "Think about what it's like to have hands," she says quietly. "What your human shape feels like. Tiny ears, no fur, long hair. Different colors and no sense of smell."

The bear squeezes its eyes shut, appearing to concentrate intensely. After a few long moments, the air shimmers around it, and the furry bulk of the bear collapses back into the somewhat crumpled and damp form of Apple White. Her dress is in disarray and it's the first time Raven has ever seen her hair any way but perfect - even when she's just waking up or fresh out of bathing, it's still the perfect hair of a princess. Right now it's tangled, parts of it in her face, chunks sticking out and other sections pulled straight instead of perfectly curled. Apple's perfect Royal illusion has been ruined in more ways than one, today.

Apple is clearly wavering on the edge of panic. Her breathing is fast and uneven, and occasional tears are leaking down her cheeks without her seeming to notice. Staring at Cerise, the first thing that pops out of her mouth is, "You - your ears. Your father is the Big Bad Wolf? Little Red Riding Hood married the _wolf_?"

"Yes. I love my dad," Cerise adds with a glare. "He's wonderful. He loves me and mom a lot."

"So what does this mean my father is? I've seen him. He's not a bear. I mean, mom said I inherited my allergies from him-" she cuts herself off, looking horrified. "I need to talk to my mom. She must have known. She always told me I was allergic." In another rapid swing of emotions, she hurls herself face-first into the pillows with a dramatic sob. "Everyone _saw_! I can't be queen if I'm a monster!"

Cerise yanks her hood back up and growls at Apple's back, eyes flashing yellow.

"That was extremely rude," Raven snaps, fed up with Apple's poor-me routine when people are trying to help her. "Cerise didn't have to come talk to you, or let you know that you aren't alone in your parents' story not being exactly what everyone thinks it was. If you're going to be nasty about it, we can leave you alone here to stew in misery. Maddie would actually appreciate our company."

"You don't understand, my life is _ruined_!" wails Apple. Raven makes a disgusted noise and beckons for Cerise to follow her as she storms out to go hang out in Maddie's room, since hers is full of tantrum.

"Has the fallen highest climbed from whence she fell?" Maddie asks when she opens the door to reveal Raven and Cerise looking murderous in the hallway.

"No, she just wants to drag everyone else down with her to have a pity party at the bottom." Raven shakes her head and tries to calm herself down. No point in taking out her anger at Apple on Maddie. "She started being nasty to Cerise, so she can wail about how her life is over by herself."

Maddie produces a table and tea set out of nowhere and drops into a chair, beckoning for Raven and Cerise to sit down as well. Raven sits down in the chair nearest Maddie's with a wan smile at her, and Cerise takes the third, still fidgeting with her hood.

"I'm sorry, Cerise," Raven adds. "I wouldn't have asked you to help if I had known she was going to be like that. You're worth twelve of her anyway."

A smile flashes quickly across Cerise's face, and she picks up a teacup to hide it. "It's all right. It's not like she's Kitty. She won't do anything about it. I suppose even if she did, no one would care about me compared to her."

Raven grimaces. "That doesn't make it right for her to treat you like that. I was hoping that having her illusion of perfection shattered would give her some more empathy for those of us without Royal happily ever afters, but apparently not."

"She hasn't adjusted yet," Maddie puts in. "She's scared. Wounded animals lash out at the people trying to help them."

"I don't think Apple would thank anyone for calling her a wounded animal."

Maddie shrugs. "The truth is in the telling of it."

Raven sighs and picks up a cup of tea. Discovering it to be chamomile, she drains it and feels herself calm down a little more. "This is just _like_ her. 'Oh, Raven, you have to poison me so I can get my happily ever after! I don't care if that path ends with you in chains!' She's so _selfish_ , she can't see beyond the end of her own nose."

"Headmaster Grimm doesn't help," Cerise says quietly. "He has all the Royals believing that our fairy tale destinies are the only thing that matters. I know she hasn't noticed that Daring likes Lizzie - the whole school expects him to be Apple's prince, but I don't think they even like each other. They just believe they should, because the most perfect boy goes with the most perfect girl."

"I think it's sad," Maddie declares. "They don't know how to let themselves be happy. Everything is about doing what someone else says."

"They don't just let it happen to them, though, they shove it on everyone else! Look at how everyone treated Ashlynn when she admitted she was dating Hunter. Apple _cried_ , like her friend being happy was a _betrayal_ of her somehow. The Royals want life to be all show and no substance. This whole school just enforces it - Princessing classes were nothing but how to smile! And remember when Cedar joined the beauty pageant and it was all about having your hair perfect?" Raven shakes her head, disgusted.

"When all you see is the gold on the bars, a cage is a home," says Maddie.

"But they're still _bars_ , Maddie. And they don't care about the rest of us in cages with - with chains, and spikes on them. She called me selfish for not signing the Storybook of Legends! Because I didn't want to go to prison so she could be queen! Every Royal is more selfish than any Rebel could ever be."

"I wish we were all allowed to be like Poppy," Cerise says. "It doesn't matter what we're interested in, just what Headmaster Grimm says is right. I'd like to try some of the boys' classes."

"Me too," sighs Raven. "I mean, I have magic, I don't think I really need to know how to use a sword - but I want the chance to _try_ , and see if I like it or not! None of us have the chance to try anything." She glares down at her teacup, and a teapot lifts  and refills it, winning a reluctant half-smile. "The Royals are so _selfish_. All they care about is their own happily ever afters."

"Apple has probably calmed down," Maddie says. "We should try and talk to her again. It's not her fault she thought the world went in glass boxes."

Raven makes a face at Maddie, then impulsively hugs her. "I swear, you make me feel more evil than Apple does. I don't know how you care about everyone so much."

"Everyone is important," Maddie says seriously. "Even princesses in cages with golden bars. Even you. Even me!" She grins, and her face lights up like dawn.

Raven grins back at Maddie for a few moments, drinking in her infectious joy, then looks over at Cerise. "Do you want to come along while we try again? I understand completely if you'd rather leave her to it."

Cerise considers for a few moments, then shrugs. "If she starts in again, I can just leave. She's not my roommate, it's not my problem."

Raven smiles at the other girl and stands. "Thanks. I do have to live with her, and her tantrumming glory right now would be a little hard to sleep in the same room with." The other two follow her out of Maddie's room and back towards Raven and Apple's. The hallways are strangely quiet, like no one else is in the dorm, when usually there would be at least a couple of rooms with groups of students laughing in them. It puts Raven on edge, but she tries not to let it get to her too much. It's not the she thinks Apple's life is really ruined... but, well. The Royals might be pretty awful to her until she adjusts. She wishes she didn't care - Apple doesn't care how miserable the Rebels are made by the Royals' pursuit of happily ever after, after all - but she does feel sorry for her in spite of herself.

When they reach the door, Raven opens it carefully and sticks her head in. "Apple?" Her roommate is an unmoving lump of crumpled dress facedown in her bed, but at least she's not wailing at the top of her lungs about her life being over anymore. Raven steps inside uncertainly, but Maddie bustles past her. Producing a cup of tea that smells of gingerbread, she sits down on the edge of Apple's bed and pats her shoulder. "There, there. Have some tea. Tea makes everything better."

"Does it have honey in it?" Apple asks glumly, somewhat muffled by her pillow.

"Of course not! I would never give anyone anything they were allergic to. Or that made them turn into a bear. Unless they wanted to turn into a bear. Or a dormouse. I might have tea that would make you turn into a dormouse. Would you like some?"

Apple sits up, blinks at Maddie, and shakes her head. "No, thank you. I don't need to be a dormouse."

Maddie nods affably. "All right. This won't turn you into anything. Except someone who has drunk a cup of tea. If you don't want that, you don't have to drink tea. You don't have to drink anything! Though I think you'd have to start eating a lot of soup to make up for it, if you stopped drinking anything. Do you like soup?"

Apple takes the quicker expedient for ending Maddie's monologue about liquid consumption options and accepts the cup of gingerbread tea, taking a cautious sip and seeming somewhat relieved by not immediately turning into a bear or even a dormouse.

"Are you going to apologize to Cerise?" Raven asks, after Apple has finished the cup of tea.

Apple looks up and blinks in confusion. "Apologize for what?"

"For calling her a monster," Raven snaps.

"I didn't call her a monster! I called me a monster."

"And by implication, anyone else like you."

"I didn't mean it like that. It's different for Royals."

"If you're going to keep being a self-centered brat, we can go back to Maddie's room and leave you alone in your dramatic misery again."

Apple ignores her and casts around wildly. "I need to call my mother on the MirrorNet." Her gaze lights on her MirrorPad on the nightstand, and she snatches it up and fumbles through commands.

Raven looks intensely skeptical, but sits down on the bed next to Cerise and beckons to Maddie to join them. "We might as well hear first-hand whatever Snow White has to say about this," she says to them in an undertone. Cerise nods, while Maddie occupies herself with a cup of tea.

Apple gets through to the queen on her MirrorPad, and there's a dismayed exclamation from the other end. "Apple! What's happened? What's wrong with your hair?"

Crystal tears spilling down her cheeks, Apple says carefully, "There was a picnic today. Daring mis-aimed a smile, and it knocked a beehive out of a tree. It fell on me."

There's a long silence from the other side, then a sigh. "Let me get your father."

"Yes, Mother," Apple says automatically.

After another few long moments and the sound of footsteps from the mirror, a man's voice comes through. "Hello, dear. Looks like you haven't had a very good day."

Apple bursts into renewed tears. "It's been _awful_ , Daddy! I turned into a monster and everyone screamed and ran away from me and now I'll never be queen because I'm a monster!"

Cerise rolls her eyes expressively at Raven, who pretends to gag back at her.

"Not a monster, Apple," says the voice from the other side. "A bear. Bears aren't monsters. They're just a type of animal, no different than a frog prince." Cerise looks somewhat gratified by this.

"But Daddy, _how_ could I turn into a bear? I'm not a frog prince! It's in Hopper Croakington's family! Honey touched me, for the first time, and I turned into a bear. Mother always told me I was allergic and I inherited it from you." Apple takes a deep breath, before bursting out with, "Daddy, are _you_ a bear?"

"Sometimes," he says calmly, earning a horrified gasp from Apple. "I was cursed to be in the form of a bear before I met your mother, who broke the curse keeping me from human shape, but not removing the spell of bear's form. It can still be triggered - if I wish to on purpose, or by honey. I hoped it hadn't passed on to you, because I knew it would upset you, but it seems it has. I'm sorry this was sprung on you without warning, Apple. Your mother and I hoped that perhaps you could avoid ever even knowing the spell was there."

"I'll never be queen now," Apple sobs. "No one will want to be ruled by a monster."

"That's quite enough of that," the voice says briskly. "You are not now and have never been a monster, and neither am I. Outward form doesn't make a monster - it takes cruelty, which is something I hope you will never possess."

"And where's the line between cruel and merely callous?" Raven whispers to Cerise. "Because she's got selfishness down pat." Cerise nods in agreement, her eyes flashing yellow again.

"But I'm supposed to be perfect!"

Raven mimes gagging at Cerise again.

"You are perfect, Princess. The spell on our house doesn't change that."

"If it's so completely fine to turn into a bear, why didn't I know about it? Why doesn't everybody know about it already? They can't have, they all screamed and ran away."

There's a heavy sigh from the mirror. "Because we knew it would be awkward, and some people would react badly, and we hoped to spare you that if we could. We were wrong to take that route, I think, but it's too late to change the past. We can only change what we do going forward."

"What _can_ I do going forward? I can't possibly be allowed to stay in my classes, my room - the Headmaster wouldn't allow an _animal_ -"

Cerise snarls again, glaring at Apple.

"There are already animals at school," Raven points out, biting off each word with measured calmness. "Hopper Croakington is an animal more often than he's human."

"Who is that growling at you every time you say something rude about animals, Apple?" asks the voice from the mirror. "Perhaps they have a better idea than you what it's like for animals at Ever After High. Can I speak to them for a moment?"

Apple looks flabbergasted, and stares over at the three on the other bed, clearly having forgotten that they were even there in the black hole absorption of her own misery. After several long moments of blank staring, Raven makes a disgusted noise and gestures. A jet of purple light whisks Apple's MirrorPad from her hands across the room into Cerise's.

Cerise blinks at the MirrorPad and the broad handsome man on the other side of the connection.

"Hello," the king says. "May I ask your name, young lady?"

"Cerise Hood," she says quietly.

"Ah, Red Riding Hood's daughter. You're the one Apple is upsetting with her thoughtless comments about monsters?" Apple huffs affrontedly.

Cerise blushes and reflexively tugs her hood more firmly over her ears. "Yes."

"Might I then venture a guess that your father was the wolf?"

Cerise looks helplessly at Raven and Maddie for support. Raven leans over and hugs her around the shoulders. "Go on, Cerise. I don't think the bear prince will care as much as Kitty does."

Cerise bites her lip, then nods. "Yes. My father is the wolf. He loves us very much," she adds defensively.

"I'm sure he does," the king says. "Now, have you been driven out of school for your parentage?"

"I- no one knows. Except Raven and Maddie, and now Apple. And Kitty keeps trying to blackmail me with it." She looks down. "Everyone knows how my parents' story was supposed to go."

"Supposed to go isn't more important than how things _did_ go. The happily matters more than the ever after. I think Headmaster Grimm has lost sight of that, and unfortunately, he seems to be transmitting that view on to our children - the Royals, at least." He grimaces. "Would you pass the mirror back to Apple, please?"

Cerise nods and Raven magics it over again.

Apple snatches it out of the air. "Why did you want to talk to _her_ , Daddy?"

"So I could get an idea of what you're facing now, and so that I could get an idea of who your words have been hurting. Every time you call yourself a monster or speak badly of animals, you're speaking about her as much as yourself. I thought better of you than that, Apple. A queen must care for the well-being of everyone, not just herself."

Apple blushes in shame, but tries to defend herself. "But it's different! She's not a Royal!"

"No, she's a person. And so are you. As is everyone else in your school - a consideration far more important than fairy tale factions."

"But the Rebels are defying their destinies," Apple protests, nonplussed.

"There are more important things in life than destiny. I'm sorry I didn't teach you that. Your mother and I didn't follow any predetermined path - we found our own way. And so should you, and everyone else at Ever After High."

"But it's my destiny to be _queen_ , Daddy. I _like_ my destiny. Raven's already been trying to ruin my happily ever after, and now this curse has spoiled it for good."

"How has Raven been trying to ruin anything?"

"She refuses to be properly evil and poison me, like an Evil Queen should! It's her destiny! And my story can't get started until she does it! She's so selfish!" Apple warmed to her subject, distracted from her current plight by her long-running complaint.

"And what does she get from that?"

"What?"

"What happens to her, after she poisons you? Does she live happily ever after?"

"Of course not," Apple says, puzzled. "She's evil."

"Perhaps I was wrong about you not being a monster, Apple. You are thinking of no one but yourself, and the happiness of anyone else doesn't seem to matter to you at all. Outside shape doesn't make a monster - but the thoughts inside can. Think about that, Apple. I need to go - duty calls."

"But Daddy-"

"I love you, Apple. I'll talk to you later. Think about how you've been treating others, and what the true duties of a queen are. Farewell."

The connection cuts, and Apple breaks down in sobs again.

Raven grits her teeth and rolls her eyes. Of course Apple is reacting, as usual, to anyone else having a problem by making it all about her. She doesn't care that she's hurting people, just that it might make her look bad!

"Raven, I'm sorry."

Raven starts. "What?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't think about - what my happily ever after would do to you. I saw your face when the Book of Legends showed your your future, but I just brushed it off, because all I cared about was whether you would make my story come true." Apple wipes her eyes with a handkerchief and looks pleadingly up at Raven. "Forgive me?"

Raven sighs. "Of course. But I'm not the only one you need to apologize to."

"I'm sorry, Cerise. I shouldn't have said those things about monsters and animals. You're not either."

"I am an animal, at least partially. Where you were wrong was in seeing that as a bad thing."

"Different isn't bad," Raven adds. "Neither is diverging from what Headmaster Grimm tells us our destiny is.

 

"We can all write our own happily ever after."


End file.
